


play it again

by cashewbean



Category: I Love Yoo (Webcomic)
Genre: Band Fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:40:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22654135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewbean/pseuds/cashewbean
Summary: we used music to bring them together, and found each other along the way. Band AU. Ongoing. [Shin-Ae Y., Yeong-Gi H.] [Rika L., Soushi T.]
Relationships: Hirahara "Nol" Yeong-Gi/Yoo Shin-Ae, Rika Lau/Soushi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by @Paisenpais and her drawing of Nol as a guitarist!

**Word Count:** 1398

* * *

~ one ~

“Soushi! Hurry up!”

“I’m trying!”

I sigh again as I slow down for Soushi to catch up. He’s not that much shorter than me, but he walks like a sloth and we’re already late. Sometimes I want to hit him with my guitar.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

I grab his coat and drag him down the street to the building where we are supposed to meet the rest of the band. We were pretty excited when we found out we would be playing with Rika again, but she’s so busy now that she forgot to tell us who our drummer is.

Oh well. I guess we’ll find out when we get there.

“Oi!” Soushi finally yanks his arm out of my grasp as we stop in front of the building. “You ass! That hurt!”

He’s glaring at me, but it’s so fake I can’t help but snort in amusement. It quickly dissolves into a coughing fit once I see the look on his face again.

“Sorry.” I smile sheepishly and hold the door open for him. “But you walk too damn slow.” 

He huffs in annoyance. “You could at least drop the death grip… ” He grumbles to himself. He mumbles something about bruises showing up later as he passes me and I roll my eyes. I walk in after him and shut the door behind us. 

“Yeong-Gi! Soushi!” 

We turn to see Rika waving at us from the other side of the room. I smile and wave back as Soushi puts his guitar down. Rika puts the folder she’s holding down and walks over to us to lean up against the wall.

“We haven’t seen each other in forever. What’s new?”

I start to answer, but I quickly cut myself off. Rika faces us, but her body is turned slightly to face Soushi, and she keeps glancing at him for an answer. A teasing smile slowly works it’s way on to my face and I poke Soushi in the arm.

“Yeah Soushi, what’s new buddy? We haven’t had much time to talk either.” He glares at me again, the tiniest hint of pink appearing on his cheeks. He knows I’m lying. We ran into each other at the airport and talked the whole way here.

“Asshole,” Soushi grumbles. I snort.

“What?”

“Oh crap, I didn’t mean you! I meant…. Ugh, nevermind.”

I laugh again as I bring my guitar to speakers in the middle of the room, effectively forcing them to have some alone time. I tune out their conversation and focus on setting up the speakers. I’m almost done setting up when the door to the room crashes open. Rika pauses her conversation to look at the intruder. 

“Girl, what happened to you? You look like you ran 4 miles to get here.”

“Very funny. I woke up late, and then there was all the damn traffic–”

That voice. I look up in surprise. “Shin-Ae?”

She turns away from Rika–after throwing her a teasing look that very clearly implied that she knew about Rika’s little crush–and shifts her body to face me. She smiles. 

“Yo!”

I don’t have to look at Soushi to know he’s smirking at me. 

* * *

We spent a fair amount of time just talking and catching up. Sharing stories of our travels, different bands we’ve performed with, concert venues we’ve performed in. 

I found out that a few months ago, Shin-Ae and I were both in Chicago at the same time. She stayed for an extra day after her last performance to say hi to Min-Hyuk, but I was performing that day.

“What a shame,” Soushi grins at me over the glass he’s holding. “You guys just missed each other.”

I shot him a glare. _Shut your mouth._ He smirks at me again.

“Shit! We lost track of the time again,” Rika looks to the clock hanging on the wall. “Maya will kill me if we come back without rehearsing.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Shin-Ae stands up, stretching out her muscles. ”Let’s get going then.”

It takes a hot two seconds for us to spring into action. Soushi on the bass guitar, Shin-Ae on drums, Rika on the keyboard with a microphone, and me on lead guitar. This is so _natural_ –most of the tours I’ve done in the time we weren’t together were so stiff. There was no room for goofing around and laughing until you cried.

Here, we were free.

* * *

“I can’t believe it’s here already!”

Rika paces around the room, making sure that everything is in place. After a week of practice and a mini road trip to our first concert venue, we’re ready to perform our first show. 

“Rika, calm down,” Shin Ae tries her best to reassure her. “You’ve done a million shows before.”

“But I’ve never performed in front of so many people!” The three of us look at each other in amusement as Rika waves her hands around. Shin Ae tries to hide her smile but fails miserably.

We’re due on stage in ten minutes. We can hear the crowd screaming from our dressing room, and it’s not doing anything to calm the star of the show down. 

She puts her hand on Rika’s shoulder. “You’ll be _fine_. You’re performing with friends, remember?”

“We’re gonna kill it.” Soushi puts his hand on the shoulder that Shin Ae’s hand isn’t occupying and smiles gently at Rika when she turns to look at him. This time I really have to cover my mouth and hide my smile. Shin-Ae shoots a secret grin my way. 

We’ve been trying to set them up since our first performance together, and that was over a year ago. Walking a little ahead of them, sitting next to each other on the bus, making up lame excuses to ditch our group facetime calls–all in the hopes that one of them will confess.

Unfortunately, that means I’ve had over a year to figure out that I have a crush on Shin-Ae. 

Karma sucks.

The announcer’s voice blares out over the speakers and the crowd roars. I look to my bandmates and smile. The show is about to start.

The door crashes open and Maya barges into the room. “Get your butts on stage! It’s showtime!” She grabs Rika and Soushi by the arm and pulls them out the door, completely ignoring their protests. “Shin-Ae, Yeong-gi, hurry up!”

Shin-Ae snickers as she watches them get dragged away. She turned to me again.

“Maya _totally_ ships them.”

I laugh. “Hmm, what gave that away?’

She pauses, pretending to be deep in thought. “Oh I don’t know… maybe it was the teasing glances she kept giving them? Or how she’d always sit them next to each other when we went out for food? Or that day when she just happened to forget to buy two cups of coffee and suggested that they share it with two straws–”

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it–I always knew that Maya shipped them, but just hearing Shin-Ae describe the lengths Maya went to to try and set them up was absolutely comical.

“Oh man, I’d be terrified if I was in Soushi’s shoes,” I shudder at the thought of Maya pulling ridiculous stunts like that to set me up with someone.

It’s a miracle she hasn’t noticed how close Shin-Ae and I have gotten.

Shin-Ae just laughs along with me. “Seriously! You and I try _so_ hard to be subtle and Maya just walks in with one cup, announcing that she forgot to buy a second one and that two of them would have to _share_ –”

She cuts herself off, wheezing with laughter. My fit of laughter slowly subsides and I can’t help but watch her as she struggles to catch her breath. We should be out there by now, preparing to enter the stage with our favorite blue-haired singer. But right now, I can’t help but watch as Shin-Ae places her hands over her stomach and leans over to catch her breath. Her hair covers her face but I can still see her smile, and I can hear Maya yelling for us to hurry up but all I want to do is sit here with her.

I stand up and hold my hand out for her to take and when she looks at me with that smile of hers, I can only think of one thing.

_I’m so fucked._


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we used music to bring them together, and found each other along the way. Band AU. Ongoing. [Shin-Ae Y., Yeong-Gi H.] [Rika L., Soushi T.]

**Word Count:** 1675

* * *

~ two ~

“Maya _please_ —”

“NOW IT LOOKS LIKE THE JOKE’S–”

I put my head in my hands and do my best to shut out Maya’s loud, obnoxious singing. She’s actually a pretty good singer but sometimes she doesn’t bother staying on pitch.

Or controlling her volume.

“–THE GIRL THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW–”

Rika opted for driving the van ourselves, and it’s been going pretty well so far. We’re driving to our third venue, and we’ve been on the road for around five hours? I lost count. We’ve been on tour for around a week now, and we’re so busy that the days kind of blend together.

“MAYA, SHUT UP BEFORE I KILL YOU.” 

Silence. I lift my head to see Shin-Ae staring at Maya through the rearview mirror with a look of murder before sighing and massaging her temples with one hand. She volunteered to drive first, but now she looks like she’s regretting that decision.

“How about we switch drivers soon?” I ask hopefully. “I can drive next.”

Maybe that would be a good idea.” Rika glances worriedly at Shin-Ae. “Shin-Ae, can you pull over at the next rest area?”

Soon enough, we’re parking the van and hopping out to stretch our legs. Maya heads to the restrooms while Soushi and Rika sit at a nearby bench to talk. Shin-Ae and I lean against the van.

“Are you okay?”

Shin-Ae looks my way. “Yeah. Usually driving helps me relax, but Maya’s screaming was giving me a headache.”

“Mmmh yeah. Understandable.” I look over to see Maya exit the bathroom and head towards Soushi and Rika. We could start driving again, but the fresh air is nice and it’s pretty clear that we all want to relax a bit before we start driving again.

My eyes fall shut as I start to quietly sing a song my mother used to sing to me. With the warm sun beaming down onto my face, it almost feels like I’m a child again and my mother is pushing me on the swings, laughing when I ask her to push me higher. 

“You have a nice voice.”

I totally forgot Shin-Ae was still here. “Thank you."

“What song is that?” I look to her now, studying her carefully. She’s looking at me curiously, her body tilted slowly to face me. I run my hand through my hair before answering.  
  
“It’s a song my mother used to sing to me when it was time for me to go to sleep.” I can still see her coppery hair framing her face as she leaned down to tuck me into bed. “It reminds me of her.”

“It’s a lovely song. She would be proud of you and what you’re doing, you know.” I smile at her softly. 

Rika runs up to us then, pushing strands of her blue hair out of her face. Soushi and Maya are a little way behind her, chatting as they walk. “Are you two ready to go?”

“Sure, but I’ll drive this time.” I look to Shin-Ae again. “Do you want to sit in the front seat? It might help your headache.”

She smiles gratefully at me. “Yes please.” 

I turn to the car again and I almost miss the small smile that Rika shoots to Shin-Ae. 

* * *

The stars glitter slowly in the sky as we drive along. We talked and played some music quietly earlier, but now it’s late at night and everyone fell asleep.

Maya is leaning her head against the window, while Rika is leaning on Soushi’s shoulder. I can’t help but smile at the two of them. They’ve gotten really close over all the shows we’ve done together, and anyone can see that they have feelings for each other.

I glance at Shin-Ae then, looking at her out of the corner of my eye. She’s awake as well, looking quietly out the window. 

“Can’t sleep?”

She jolts, clearly not expecting me to speak. “Ah, yeah–I have a lot on my mind.”

I glance at her once before turning my focus back to driving our van. “Yeah, me too.” I can’t help the small smile that shows up on my face at the irony of the situation. She glances at Soushi and Rika through the rearview mirror again, smiling softly.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

She looks at me with wide eyes. It’s weird for her to participate in these kinds of conversations. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s always kept this stuff to herself.

She held it all in until she had no choice but to break.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to.” We roll up to an intersection and I use the opportunity to look her in the eyes. 

This time, I won’t let her fall. 

“Okay.” Her voice is small, shy, and so unlike Shin-Ae that I almost want to laugh. But I don’t, because I know she’s not used to this. 

Hell, I’m no good with this either.

She tucks her hair behind her ear, and I catch a glimpse of her scars. She told me about them once, about how she got them from her days in school. I never asked about them again.

“I got a message recently, from a girl I used to be friends with. She….played a part in how I got my scars, and so I haven’t talked to her since.”

I don’t realize what I’m doing until It’s already done. I take her hand in mine, squeezing it gently as the other one stays firm on the wheel. She inhales in surprise, looking at me with wide, confused eyes. 

“What did she say?” Suddenly it’s a lot harder to keep my voice steady. Her hand may be small compared to mine, but somehow they still fit together easily.

“She asked how I was doing, and she said she was sorry for what she did.” She’s looking at our hands too. “She said it was an accident.”

Shin-Ae pauses for a second, thinking. I squeeze her hand again, silently urging her to go on.

“I accepted her apology, but I told her I couldn’t just let it go. I can’t just forgive her for what she did, even if it was an accident.” She laughs bitterly. “The accident is long done and over with, but she’s still on my mind, all these years later.”

I let go of her hand briefly to turn on some music. The playlist I choose is a collection of calm songs my mother listened to, all from her wide selection of oldies. I take her hand again as the music starts to play.

“This is the playlist of songs your mother liked, right?”  
  
“Yeah, it calms me down,” I turn to smile at her quickly. “I figured it might help you too.”

A few songs go by before Shin-Ae squeezes my hand back, smiling at me again.

“Thank you, Yeong-Gi.”

“Anytime, Shin-Ae.”

The rest of the drive was silent except for the music floating through the car, and neither of us made a move to pull our hands back.

* * *

I wake up slowly, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. At first, I don’t remember where I am, but then as I blink the sleep from my eyes, I realize I’m on an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room.

Right. The tour. 

I groan, stretching my limbs before slowly sitting up. One glance at my phone, and I remember that we’re now about a month into the tour. Time really flies.

Soushi is on the other bed to my right, and I can already tell that he’s gonna miss breakfast if I don’t wake him up. I _could_ be a good friend and wake him up normally. But Soushi sleeps like a log and honestly, my way is much more fun.

In one swift motion, I grab his ankles from under the edge of the blanket and pull him off the bed. He crashes to the ground in an instant.

“What the fuck man?” Soushi lays there in a tangle of blankets, glaring at me. His hair is all messed up from sleep and he’s currently shirtless. 

I grin. “Rise and shine, buddy!”

I duck before the pillow can hit me and quickly slip out of the room to escape his anger. I slam the door closed before he can protest and laugh when I hear Soushi trying to pull the door open. After a few attempts, he stops trying and I hear him step away from the door.

“Yeong-Gi?’

Shin-Ae and Maya were standing outside of their room, which was conveniently placed right next to ours. Shin-Ae looks confused, but Maya can’t stop laughing. I groan.

“Maya, breathe,” I say, a little panicked now because she literally can’t stop laughing. “Christ, it wasn’t even that funny–”

“What on earth–” Rika walks out of their room next and I am so tempted to hit my head on our door.

“Look, I had to wake him up somehow, okay? It’s not my fault he sleeps like a damn brick of metal–” I cut myself off and turn to look straight at Rika. “I hope that when you two finally start dating, you have a plan on how to deal with this.”

Rika’s face flushes instantly and she starts sputtering words while Maya is thrown into another fit of laughter. Shin-Ae snorts at this as well and grins at me, holding up her hand for a high five. I sling my arm over her shoulder just as Soushi opens the door again, fully dressed this time.

The look of confusion on his face is too much. Maya starts laughing _again_ and this time I join her, leaning onto Shin-Ae for support. Rika is still trying to calm her flaming face.

In short, we look like a mess.

“You,” Soushi jabs his finger towards my face. “Are an asshole. And you are totally driving the van to our next concert venue.”

“Fine by me. Can we get breakfast now?”

“Yes, let’s get breakfast,” Maya grins at us. “I’m _starving._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finally here! i'm sorry for the wait guys
> 
> btw, if anyone can guess the song maya was singing, i'll love you forever xD
> 
> chpt 3 is already in the works! i promise i'll have it up much faster!


	3. Chapter 3

**Word Count:** 1219

* * *

~ three ~

“Oh man, that was one of our best shows yet!”

Soushi slings his arm around Rika’s shoulders and pulls her into his side. Rika still flushes a little bit around him, but you can tell they’ve grown closer.

Tours do that to people. When you’re spending all your hours together–in the van, the hotel rooms, and on stage–you learn things about each other that you never knew before. 

Or, in Shin-Ae’s and my case, you grow closer by spending the entire tour trying to set your friends up.

We’re about a month and a half into our tour and although it’s been crazy, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Tours are much more fun when you’re spending time with people you like, and let’s just say that I  _ really _ like spending time with Shin-Ae.

I almost wish the tour was longer.

A small hand reaches out to grasp mine as we walk out the backstage door. Shin-Ae lightly grips the ends of my fingers as we walk side by side out into the night.

“You look like you have a lot on your mind,” She looks away awkwardly, and I can’t help but grin. She may not be the best at talking about feelings, but she is trying, and we’ve grown closer from it.

“I was just thinking about how much fun the tour has been so far.“ I swing our joined hands between us, grinning like a child and laughing when she rolls her eyes at me. “I don’t want it to end.”

“We still have a month and a half left guys,” Rika’s voice pierces the air from where she’s walking in front of us. “You’ll be glad to go home when it’s done.”

“You don’t know that,” I look down at Shin-Ae when she speaks up. “Maybe we’re adrenaline junkies and we love the chaos of the tour.” 

“Girl, I know you. You love the music, but there’s only so much of the crowd you can take.” Rika stares at Shin-Ae over her shoulder unrelentingly. I catch Soushi looking down at her with a grin, and his face changes to a look of embarrassment when he realizes I caught him.

“Oi, you know you look at Shin-Ae the same exact way when nobody else is looking.” I choke, coughing violently. Soushi laughs and I turn away from Shin-ae. My face feels warm and from the look on Soushi’s face, my cheeks are colored a bright crimson.

“He’s not wrong Yeong-Gi.” Maya has this unnaturally sweet, innocent look on her face. It’s absolutely terrifying. I almost shrink away. 

Thankfully, we’ve reached the hotel we’re staying at. It’s late at night, but the adrenaline from the concert is still running through my veins. There’s no way I can sleep now.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to sleep.” Maya yawns. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“I think I’m gonna go up to the roof,” I turn away from them slightly. “I can’t sleep right now.”

I leave them there, in the lobby. I need to burn off some energy, so I take the stairs up. This hotel has six floors, and our rooms are on the third floor. I reach our floor and keep going, all the way up until I can see the stars.

They’re comforting to me. Knowing that they’re always up there, twinkling softly–it reminds me of home, of the clear skies in Ireland.

I’m so focused on the stars that I don’t even notice that I’m no longer alone.

“Yeong-GI?’

I jolt out of my trance, turning around to see who joined me on the rooftop. Rika smiles at me apologetically and moves to stand next to me. 

“The stars are really pretty tonight, aren’t they?” 

“Yeah.”

“I wanted to ask for advice,” I turn to her and she blushes. “But first I want to know if you’re okay. Is something bothering you?"

“Not really, I just couldn’t sleep. The adrenaline from the concert hasn’t worn off yet.”

“Are you sure that’s all?”

Her question makes me turn to her. I almost ask her what she means by that, but then I see the tiny smile on her face, and it hits me. She already knows what I’m thinking about.

“I–” I cut myself off, partially because of embarrassment, but mostly because I don’t know what to say. I don’t say anything for a few minutes, and she lets me think in silence.

Rika and I don’t talk that often, but she’s somehow still good at picking up little glimpses of how I’m feeling. When the first show ended and we parted ways, we didn’t text all that often. But whenever we did get the chance to talk, it was almost like no time had passed.

I’m really lucky to have her as a friend, even if she’s more of Shin-Ae’s friend than mine.

“I was thinking about the tour,” I say at last. I look out over the city line, taking in all the different sized buildings. “...I meant it when I said I didn’t want the tour to end. Plus—“ I duck my head down to hide my blush again. “I’ll miss seeing Shin-Ae.”

“You really love her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do.” 

“Why don’t you tell her then?”

I don’t know how to answer.  _ I don’t know if she feels the same way, _ I want to say.  _ I’m lucky enough to be friends with her _ . But something tells me that that’s not what it is.

“I–I don’t know why Rika. I just can’t do it.” 

She puts her hand on my shoulder again, offering comfort. I know she understands why I’m struggling because she’s in the same position. But I have a feeling one of them will speak up soon. 

I turn to face her now. “You also wanted advice, right? Advice about what?”

“I–-” She cuts herself off, blushing a little again. “Way to change the topic, Yeong-Gi. I want to tell Soushi how I feel, but I’m not sure how. And you’re his best friend, so I thought I’d ask you–”

‘Rika, slow down,” I chuckle at her nervous rambling. ”Of course I’ll help you. Honestly, I think he can be dense as a brick, so you just need to say it to him. Everyone can see he likes you.” She blushes again.

“I’ll try it out...I’m just not sure when to say it.”

“You could tell him after the next concert? Or, if you wanted to be really romantic, you could write a song for him.”

Silence. For a second I’m confused as to why she didn’t respond, but then it all makes sense. 

“You wrote a song for him already, didn’t you? Oh my God, you  _ did– _ ”

Her hand covers my mouth in an instant. “Yeong-Gi, can you be  _ any _ louder–okay fine, but stop giving me that look.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Seriously though. Just tell him how you feel. Be honest with him.” Rika smiles at me.

“Thanks, Yeong-Gi. I owe you one. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

She leans in to give me a hug before smiling and walking down the stairs, back to her room. I turn to face the city line again, reveling in the cold air and the sounds of the buzzing city traffic.


End file.
